Watch your language: how we emphasize family diversity when talking to our kids
We want to teach our kids that diversity comes in many shades — and telling them that sex is something only moms and dads do is the first thing to go.
Books to read in bed: Polysexual romantic fiction
I decided I wanted some light reading that had sex in it, and realized… I think this means I want to read a romance novel. But ew: romance novels? I’m not at ALL interested in the bodice ripper “big strong man, docile female” dynamic that many romance novels focus on, so I went off on a hunt for something different: Intelligent feminist polysexual romantic fiction.
Wait, does such a thing exist?!
Sex Ed and the four-year-old
One summer evening, I piled the kids into the car for a pre-bed ice cream run. As we’re waiting in an impossibly long drive thru line, my 4 year old pipes up from the backseat, “Mommy, turn this music down. I need to talk about things.”
I cooperate and turn the radio off, asking what she wants to talk about.
“Let’s talk about babies.”
Eavesdropping: one of the many joys of city living
Our condo faces onto a courtyard, and when the windows are open there’s definitely a little Melrose Place action that happens. We hear neighbors coming and going, having sex, spanking each other, etc. It’s always entertaining.
We can also hear the callbox at the front gate. Monday night, this is what Dre and I heard, as we sat on the couch staring each other silently with wide eyes that said, “Don’t start laughing! They’ll hear you!”
When will breastfeeding stop interfering with my sex life?
I have always enjoyed a really great sex life with my husband — pretty much right up until the birth of our daughter in August. After she was born, it took a while to get back into the swing of things. The problem now is that it hurts every time we try to have sex. I talked to my midwife about it and she said that it is going to hurt more than normal because I’m breastfeeding her. I do have an IUD but she assured me that it wasn’t the problem and once I stop breastfeeding, it will go back to “normal.”
How I support my family as a sex worker
For all intents and purposes I have the perfect suburban mommy resume. With one enormous exception. I keep a huge secret from my family, neighbors, and friends. After a long day of story time at the library, playing with moon sand, and finger painting… I go to work. I don’t have a typical mom job. Not by a long shot. I’m an escort.
Penis in vagina: this way of making babies is kind of crazy
I remember the day in fourth grade when our school nurse divided the classroom into boys and girls, then whisked us, the ladies-in-training, off to a wing of the school I’d never seen. We were made to watch a poorly scripted, grainy feature film about a girl who gets her period for the first time while sleeping over at a friend’s house. The next morning, terrified, she tells her friend and her friend’s mother. The mom spends the remainder of this ostensibly ’80s classic drawing a uterus and ovaries in pancake batter on the griddle to demonstrate the female system.
Oops: I’ve totally accidentally abandoned my partner in favor of my child
Joanna Goddard recently posited an interesting question on her blog A Cup of Jo: Who gets the best kisses? She just finished reading Esther Perel’s Mating in Captivity, a book about sex and marriage (before and after having kids).